Welcome to Brill’s Language & Linguistics Blog

As the acquisitions editor for the Language & Linguistics list, I often run into people who have never heard of Brill and it is true that as a linguistics publisher we are relatively new. As a publisher of studies on languages, though, we have been around for a little while. In 1685, two years after Jordaan Luchtmans started the company that would become Brill, Luchtmans published the Schola Syriaca by Johannes Leusden, followed a year later by the Opus Aramaeum by Carolus Schaaf.

Interior of the Grammatica Arabica, first published by Samuel Luchtmans in 1747 and reedited by his sons in 1767. The Arabic scholar Albert Schultens adapted in his book the older grammar of Thomas Erpenius. Brill Coll. [1]

In 1855 Brill published Het Gebed des Heeren in veertien talen, ‘The Lord’s prayer in fourteen languages’, which was printed in all of the exotic fonts available to the publishing house at the time (Hebrew, Aramaic, Samaritan, Sanskrit, Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Tartar, Turkish, Javanese, Malay and Greek), contributing to Brill’s reputation as a publisher specializing in languages.

The Lord’s prayer in Coptic (1855) [2]

Between these and the recently published 4-volume work The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi by Geoffrey Khan, many hundreds of books on the study of languages have been published by Brill. Most of these were part of broader lists on Asian, Middle Eastern Studies and Classical Studies but in 2009 a dedicated acquisitions editor was appointed and the publications list on language and linguistics greatly expanded. While we are remaining true to our roots and still publish a lot of books with descriptions of ancient and modern languages, we are also expanding into other branches of linguistics. We also look beyond the monograph to journals, reference works and other new products, both print and online.

With this new blog we will give a voice and a face to our authors and editors, explore developments in scholarly publishing that affect our authors and showcase our newest publications.